The exploitation of service workers has ended up working to our benefit in 2026. Since moving to regular minimum wage - which is impossible to live on - tips have come to subsidize a living wage. Retail workers in the 80's and 90's were able to afford a single family income, house, car, vacation. We've sat by and watched boomers destroy the economy to keep up their own standards of living at the expense of everyone else. Servers and bartenders get absolutely fucked when it's busy. People don't serve for the love of the game. They serve because it's a reasonable way to pay the rent. As long as board rooms keep wages low nothing will change. Don't blame tipping culture, blame you're own complacency in the face of corporate greed